If You Keep My Commandments
John 15:9-11 Amplified Bible
9 I have loved you just as the Father has loved Me; remain in My love [and do not doubt My love for you]. 10 If you keep My commandments and obey My teaching, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. 11 I have told you these things so that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy may be made full and complete and overflowing.
It is amazing thing that God chooses to love us. Here Jesus says “I have loved you just as the Father has loved me”. Everything Jesus did was driven and motivated by His love for us. His choosing to go to the cross was because of His love for us. His remaining on the cross when He could have called legions upon legions of angels to rescue Him was because of His love for us. But He calls us to remain in His love. We are called to abide in His love. It is not a love based on feelings or emotions. It is not a romantic love. It is a love based on a decision of will. It is a sacrificial love in which we are willing to lay down all because of our love for Him. This is the love we are called to remain in.
To remain in this love, we are called to obey His commandments and teachings. Simply we are called to live out the word of God daily. At the forefront of every decision, we must have the word of God. In everything we do we must ask ourselves “does this glorify and honor Jesus”. If the answer to that question is wrong, it is the wrong decision and wrong choice. He must be the priority. Our sole purpose for living must be to worship and honor Him in all things.
Jesus lived a life of complete surrender and obedience. A big part of Jesus life was prayer. When prayer becomes the focal point of our lives, we will naturally walk in obedience to the Lord. We will hunger for His presence in a greater way. The mind and heart of Christ will be produced within us and every decision we make will be filtered through this. But we must look at how Jesus lived His life and emulate it in every way. We must become dependent on the Holy Spirit at all times. In every situation and decision our lives must be placed in the hands of The Holy Spirit.
Jesus’ desire is that our joy may be full, complete, and overflowing. The joy of the Lord that is only supplied by God Almighty and a result of knowing Him may be full in our lives. That Jesus would become our joy and delight. There are many things in this world that compete for our time and attention. But there is only one who is worthy to sit upon the throne of our hearts. There is only one who deserves our time and attention and that is Jesus.
May we be committed to live in obedience to His word and His leading. May we be surrendered to God Almighty and be willing to die to self daily. Jesus says, “if any man is to come after me, He must deny Himself and take up His cross”. This isn’t complicated, but it doesn’t mean it is easy. May we surrender all for the glory and honor of Jesus Christ.
Prayer
Father help me in my weakness and my shortcomings. Forgive me when I sin, and I fall short. Help me each day to rely fully on your grace and your power. Holy Spirit fill my life and immerse my life to overflowing. May the fruit of the Spirit be produced; may the gifts of the Spirit be manifested. Father have your way in my heart and mind in the mighty name of Jesus, Amen!
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